Hi Realselfers! I wanted to start sharing my...

14 Jun 2015

17 days post

Hi Realselfers! I wanted to start sharing my journey with you. Over the last 10 years, I went from 230 lbs at my heaviest down to 135 lbs at my lowest. At 135 lbs, my problem areas weren't trimming up so much and other areas were looking unhealthy thin. I put back on 30 lbs and look better in some ways but my problem areas became a bit bigger. In order to feel better in my skin, I wanted to get liposculpture done to help make my curves more proportional.

On May 28 I had liposculpture with Dr Kesarwani on my arms, full abs, flanks, full thighs, inner knees and upper calves. Right now, I'm just over two weeks post op and so far I believe it was worth every penny.

Day 23

20 Jun 2015

23 days post

I wanted to wait until my next update for when I got some pre-op photos and my measurements from the PS office, however that's not happening until Monday. When I get those photos, I'll post about my pre-op experience with Dr Kesarwani more.

In the meantime, I took some more photos yesterday morning. I did the comparison of 1 month before with yesterday's photos and then the improvements between day 15 and day 22. So far, I don't know any lumps in the surgery areas, bruising is almost cleared up and the swelling is starting to come down nicely. I still feel a little tight when I stretch but it feels like it's working itself out. My skin on the inside of my thighs and under my arms felt almost raw when putting arnica on last week, but this week, there is only a mild amount of pain and I don't need nearly as much gel to rub on the area.

Things I'm doing to help recovery:
Applying arnica and scar gel twice daily
Taking bromelain w quercetin to help with the swelling/inflammation recovery
Taking a collagen supplement to help the skin repair
Taking women's One A Day multivitamin
Using a trigger point massager (called "The Stick") every 3-4 days on all surgery areas

Day 25

22 Jun 2015

25 days post

I got my pre-op photos and measurements. I know I posted photos from one month before comparing those photos to where I'm at currently and still the pre-op photos blow my mind, let alone the measurements to date.

Before:
31” waist
45” hips
26.5 “ legs

Day 25:
Waist: 30
Hips: 42
Legs: 23.25

I promised I would tell you all a bit more about my surgery day. Here it is! My surgery was for 1pm, so I didn't eat or drink anything from 8pm the night before. It was surprisingly easy to go the day without food. I chalk that up to looking forward to the surgery. I wasn't nervous or anxious. Just looking forward to seeing the other side... recovery. I got to Dr Kesarwani's office 20 mins early and sat in the lobby. They took me in a few minutes earlier. I stripped down, put on a hospital gown and flipped through a magazine while I waited. Dr Kesarwani came in, we talked about the procedure and he marked me up. You can see the marks in one of the sets of photos in this post. A little while after that, one of the nurses came in and took me into the operating room. The staff introduced themselves and my anesthesiologist asked a few questions to make sure there would be no surprises. They hooked me up to a heart rate monitor, put an IV in me and put a mask on me. I'm glad they didn't ask me to count to ten because I don't think would have made it past 4. I don't remember much after the mask went on until I got home around 10pm.

I was told my surgery should take about 3 hours so I told my husband to show up around 4:30-5pm. So he showed up around 4:30pm and was told I had just gone in and that it would be another couple of hours. So he went to a restaurant up the street. They called him at 6:15 to let him know I had just come out of surgery and that I'd be ready for him to pick me up at 7:15pm.

I vaguely remember bits of a conversation with my husband and the nurse but didn't really recall it until my husband told me about it the next day. I also remember be aware that with my compression garment was on. I couldn't pee to save my life either. LOL

The nurse helped my husband collect my things, dress me and put me a wheelchair to take me to the car for the 1+ hour trip home. I started feeling nauseous in the wheelchair so I was given a plastic barf bowl and some alcohol swabs to smell. The alcohol swab helped and thankfully, I didn't hurl. When I was put in the car, I kept telling my husband to keep lowering the back of the seat past the max recline position. LOL I really wanted to be prone I guess. I slept in the car pretty much the whole way home. We stopped onto the way home to pick up my prescription which Dr Kesarwani's office had called into my local pharmacist. Thank goodness for small miracles. When I got home, I was given a bowl of crackers and a thermal mug of chicken broth. I wasn't hungry but I did manage to eat and drink it all. I also took my first round of oxycotins and antibiotics along with a stool softener. My first time taking oxycotins and they are pretty amazing for pain management.

So I took the full 2 pills every 4 hours for the first 2 days and then went down to 1 pill every 4 hours for the next 3 days and then cut it back to 1/2 pill every 4 hours. I found I couldn't sleep straight through the night for the first two weeks so for the first week I was bang on with my pain management and antibiotic medication. I took the stool softeners every night but didn't have a bowel movement while I was taking the antibiotics for the first week. After that, I was finally able to have a bowel movement. I wasn't eating much solid food and I didn't have any constipated feeling in my intestines so I wasn't overly concerned. I told Dr Kesarwani's patient coordinator, Anita (who's been fantastic btw) and she suggested doubling up on the stool softener which I did.

I had my follow up with Dr Kesarwani the week after my surgery on Friday. It went well and he said that things were looking good. He said that I should start massaging any areas that felt hard and lumpy and otherwise, he was pleased with the areas that he worked on.

I think this post has been long enough.

Week 5

4 Jul 2015

2 months post

Last week, my medium sized compression garment came in. Hooray! The large one I had since my surgery was starting to not feel like it was as snug as it should be. Dr Kesarwani's office orders in garments from Marana. I haven't had had any discomfort or irritation to the skin because of the garment. I did find my skin was getting a little dry and I started putting on lotion every day for about two weeks. We figured out that the water softener in the house had fun low on salt and once we topped it up, my skin has been fine since.

Yesterday, I had a follow up visit with Dr Kesarwani which went all overall. He's told me I can stop wearing the compression garment overnight and just wear it during the day. I still find some spots that were worked on are numb but some feeling is starting to come back. Dr Kesarwani noted the lump under my belly button and that one flank may be slightly smaller than the other, however until the swelling is full down in another 1.5 - 2 months it is hard to tell. If that's the case, I may need a slight revision. We'll see when the time comes though. I do think that the lump has dropped a little since getting the tighter compression garment so it's probably just a matter of time.

Week 7 update

18 Jul 2015

2 months post

Now I am couple of days past week 7. I am starting to see some nice results. The lump under my belly button has dropped as you can see in the pictures. Hooray! I also think my hips and thighs are looking nice. I took my measurements again and see some nice improvements.

Before:
31” waist
45” hips
26.5 “ legs

Day 35:
Waist: 28.5
Hips: 40.5
Legs: 22.5

My weight dropped down to 162 lbs without the compression garment on as of Wednesday. I do find that if I'm not eating well, I get swelling in my hands and feet but that wouldn't be anything unusual if I hadn't had the lipo. I do find since having it done that I am more mindful of when I swell. Cleaning up my eating again looking forward to the end of week 8 so I can start working out to tone everything up. It's a rougher summer trying to figure out what to wear because of the full body compression garment, but with the improvements I'm seeing, it is worth it. One summer being over dressed vs being unhappy with my curves... no contest. Still best decision.

Dr Kesarwani made me comfortable during the initial consultation, prep for surgery and post op appointments. He's answered any questions I had and made me feel at ease with his knowledge of the procedure I was looking to have done. His patient coordinator, Anita, has been fantastic, making any concerns I've had about my recovery easily disappear.